PC not booting after installing MyHD MDP-100  

I have the same problem on my new machine, except with a MDP-130. Here's my system:

MSI 915P Combo/F
2x512MB DDR2-533
P4 530J
Radeon X600XT PCI-E x16
WD SATA 300GB
3Ware 7500-4
4x Maxtor 6Y200P0 200GB
FSP350-60PN-R1 ATX 12V PS

Mobo, CPU, Memory, WD disk are new. The rest used to be with an old PIII-550 as my linux media server. I decided to combine my desktop and media server so that I only have one computer on all the time.

When I add the MDP-130 to the machine, it just won't boot. It usually beeps rapidly for about 1.5 seconds. Shortly after that there is some HDD activity but then nothing. No display output at all - the monitor goes into power save, so I can't even get to the BIOS. If I wait more than a few seconds, a quick push of the power button won't turn it off - I have to hold the power button. After removing the MyHD card, I get the screen that says XP did not load completely the last time, but boots normally after that. The system works completely normally without the MDP-130. Removing the 3Ware and all the Maxtor disks didn't help. I tried all the PCI slots that would physically accept the MDP-130. The SPDIF connector interferes with some mobo components in two of the slots. Shaving some plastic from an audio connector frame eliminated the interference on one slot - the other is a capacitor hitting the frame on the SPDIF connector, so there's no getting around that one.

So, I tried installing the MDP-130 in my HTPC that currently has a MDP-120. That system boots fine with the MDP-130, so I don't think the card is bad. Putting the MDP-120 in the "server" also prevents booting.

I e-mailed support at Digital Connection two days ago, but haven't gotten a response. They have been very responsive on the phone before, so I'll probably just call them when I get a chance.

My current thought is that the power supply may not be able to handle the load on the 3.3V or 5V lines. I don't know if I want to buy a PS just to find out, but I don't have any other ideas besides changing the mobo.

- Mike

My MDP100 would not wokk with my Chaintek NV5700 Ultra with various different motherboards. It would boot, but there was a conflict that would prevent the video card driver from loading leaving me with 640x480 w/ 16 colors.

I moved the card to my media server (w/ ATI 7000) for recording only duty...

A possible solution to this problem is to reset the CMOS RAM and then use the BIOS to reestablish your configuration. This solution has resolved problems with Asus motherboards when changing video cards and not having the pc boot up.
Regards,
TCIII

I'm not understanding why you guys are having this symptom on new PC motherboards. What you are describing (no boot followed by BIOS beep codes) is the exact symptom of a motherboard that will not support the PCI 2.2 slot specification. Basicly the older motherboards (440BX vintage) supported PCI 2.1, and are not compatible with the MyHD products which require PCI 2.2. The difference is whether the slot standby voltage (for "wake on LAN" functions) is 5.0v (the older PCI spec) or 3.3v (PCI 2.2). It's a motherboard difference, there must be an extra voltage regulator on the board to make 3.3v from the 5.0v power supply voltage.

As long as you are not recycling old motherboards that do not support PCI 2.2 this should not be happening. I suppose it is possible that with newer boards that support PCI-E modes, that you may have put the regular PCI board in a slot configured for PCI-E x16 or x1 operation. There may be a BIOS setting for the slot to force PCI 2.2 compatibility.

Gary

Gary,

I'm as baffled as you. I first tried the MDP-130 in my 440BX PII-400 and it didn't boot either. I chocked this up to the PCI 2.1/2.2 compatibility issue. My new motherboard actually says that it's PCI 2.3 compliant - whatever that means. My HTPC is i865 based and it has no problems. I looked through all the BIOS settings on the new board and could not find anything relevant to a graphics conflict or any PCI slot settings. The only thing is the bus speed ratios for overclocking, but I'm running the system totally on-spec right now.

I think I'll go to Fry's and buy an Antec TPII-380 since it has significantly higher maximum current output on 3.3V and 5V than my current PS in addition to split 12V lines. I'm also only using the standard 20pin ATX power when the board has the new 24pin connector. The mobo manual says that's OK. Anyway, if the Antec doesn't help then I can return it. My next attempt at a fix would be to try an Intel Mobo that's close in spec to what I have. I would go back to i865 or i875, but I just bought this DDRII memory and Socket 775 CPU.

- Mike

My attempt to fix the problem by getting a larger power supply resulted in no change. Well, not NO change, at least it doesn't beep at me any more. However, there is never any output from the PCI-Express Radeon X600XT card when the MyHD is installed. I am now convinced there is some compatibility issue with the motherboard and the MyHD card. I have the most current rev of the BIOS. I am convinced it's NOT a problem with my specific MDP-130 because it boots normally in an i865 based machine and my perfectly working MDP-120 also will not work in this new MSI 915P mobo.

I am buying a new system at work with a similar Intel mobo and nVidia PCI-E card, so I'll try some combinations of those components and my own to see if I can get it to work.

- Mike

Mike, some have reported that their AGP systems didn't work with MDP-1x0 until they changed the AGP memory aperture. Is there a corresponding setting in the PCI-E BIOS that you might tweek?

I am running the MyHD-130 in a Dell system with a 6xx series intel CPU which runs on motherboards with PCI-express slots and I do not have a problem with booting. However, I cannot run hyper-threading or my machine will not turn off.

So for you guys with HT P4's, you might want to try and turn off HT if you have it enabled. However, this is a long shot, since the problems seem to affect both Intel and AMD chips.

It's more than a long shot, it's a waste of time. MyHD hw and sw work just fine, within the documented limitations re. DVD and network file playing, with HT enabled. Guessing from the described symptoms, it's either an outright hw incompatibility between MDP cards and PCI-E or a BIOS setup issue.

I've forwarded the reports in this thread to MIT.

I sent a support request to MSI and they suggested using a different slot for the MDP card. I am only able to use PCI#1 and PCI#3 because PCI#2 has the aforementioned interference between a capacitor on the mobo and the SPDIF connector frame. In any case, it made no difference even after removing the 3Ware card.

My mobo manual describes an item in the BIOS "Aperture Size Select" for which they give this description:
However, this option does not appear in my BIOS, which is the most recent available from MSI's website. There are some other items in the manual like "Int. Gfx Memory Size Select" that only apply to the 915G version of this board that has the Intel integrated graphics system. So, maybe they accidentally removed the Aperture Size Select for the 915P boards and it would fix the problem. Who knows.... We'll see what MSI comes up with next.

As soon as a I get that Intel Mobo/nVidia Graphics system in at work I'll try the MDP-130 in there.

- Mike

You make several sweeping generalizations in this statement that are just plain wrong. All I was saying was that using HT can cause issues with MyHD cards. It does for me. Just because it is SUPPOSE to work and seems to work with the MAJORITY of people, it can and does cause compatibility issues. It is a simple thing to check even if it is a long shot. I just leave HT off and my system works fine. But as soon as I turn it on, the system will not shut down properly but rather gets hung in the "Windows is Shutting Down" screen and never moves. I've done enough trouble shooting to know that it is absolutely related to the MyHD card (ie only taking out the MyHD card and the system works fine with HT turned on).

In addition, HyHD cards do work with PCI-express because I am running it on a MB with them, so you can't make that generalization either(that the card is incompatible with PCI-express).

I agree that it probably is a BIOS problem (even my problem).

I used to have a problem with an ASUS board, an AIW and power supplies with fault protection. Apparently the AIW 9700 Pro was over drawing the power supply on start up and the power supply was dying. It only happened with certain power supplies and certain motherboards. ATI knew of the problem, offered to replace peoples cards, but the new cards weren't the problem. It finally turned out to be a problem with a certain revision of the PCB's used to make the AIW 9700 Pro, that caused the card to overdraw on certain motherboards. I eventually had to switch to a crappy power supply with no fault protection in order to get it to work. Some people went as far as to build a delay on the 5V rail that directly fed the card.

In any event, on start up, your system may be over drawing on your power supply. Try disconnecting everything but the system HD, Vid Card and MyHD and see what happens.

"Meanwhile I received a reply from Gigabyte (Mobo manufacturer.) They want me to update the system bios to the latest version and try MyHD card again."

The response I got from MIT was for you to check for BIOS update.

So it's only a small waste of time. :D Good luck with your BIOS update.

I didn't say you were completely wrong :)

I did understand the essence of your post - that the MyHD cards should work fine with HT (besides the known issues as you pointed out), but I didn't want people to discount the fact that the card can cause problems with HT even if the root of the problem lies with BIOS, not the card.

Personally I'm just leaving my machine as is for the moment. I don't really need HT for my HTPC setup, so I'm not going to run the risk of messing things up more than they are by trying BIOS updates, etc.

I usually find your posts to be very accurate and informative - don't hold my comments against me :)

Raghu--

Can you try that MyHD card back in the original machine? (or at least, some other machine) If it still works there, I'd say that it's probably time to change motherboards again (or give up on using the MyHD indefinitely).

I have similar problem as the one Raghu and Briands have/had.

My Computer specs:

Motherboard: ABIT AS8 (with i865 chipset)
Bios :Phoenix Award Bios
Video Card: nVidia GeForce FX 5700 (AGP 8X)
HDs: 2 EIDE, 1 SATA (250GB each)
Memory : 2GB (PC3200 Dual Channel)
1 Memorex DVD/RW, 1 CDRW drives
No other PCI cards.

Plugged in my new MDP-130, booted up (no boot-up problems BTW), but drivers for my video card (nVidia FX5700) won't load, and I end up in 640x480 resolution. Installed MDP-130 drivers/software with no problems. Device Manager says MDP-130, IR Receiver are working fine, but FX5700 is with a yellow ! mark and says something like "This device cannot find any free resources to use. Code 12".

When I pulled out MDP-130 and booted up, FX5700 is happy.

I have tried the following so far with NO success:

1. Upgraded BIOS to the latest version/revision.
2. Decreased AGP aperture size from 128MB to 64MB
3. Moved MDP-130 to different PCI slots

I don't have another system to try MDP-130 out.

I don't know if the MDP-130 is having compatibility problems with the MotherBoard or FX5700. I was thinking of getting either a new MB or a new Video card. I just don't know which one gets along well with MDP-130.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks,
-Pete

"2. Decreased AGP aperture size from 128MB to 64MB"

Increase the aperture to 256MB.

Pete, let me know if that works. If so, I will give it a go on the weekend. It will mean pulling the rack apart so it is not a quick thing.

It works!! Cliff was right on. I changed AGP Aperture size to 256MB and whoa! It works like a champ. Quality is great.

Even though Antennaweb site said I live 26.7 miles (91325 zip) from the towers, and indoor antenna probably wouldn't work, I am getting all HD channels over air with a Silver Sensor. I even get TNT HD via my cable (TW) even though I have only basic service! Haven't looked for other HD over cable yet.

Cliff saved me a bunch of money.

Brian: It is definitely worth giving a try. My problem was exactly like yours (probably with a diff MB)

Thanks for your help.

-Pete

"Cliff saved me a bunch of money."

Is my check in the mail? :D

Raghu--

It seems from Mike's (miimura) post above that there is (supposed to be) a similar parameter in PCI-E BIOSes to set the video aperture. If you can't get a BIOS update for your mobo with that setting available and if the MDP still works in your old system (as I asked you to test before), you may have to switch either motherboards or HDTV cards.